#I cannot convey to you just how stupidly fun this game is to play the gameplay is honestly astonishingly good

[vaguely-concerned]

returnal did not cure my depression but it did give me a strangely healing new perspective that makes it all a bit easier to bear. that perspective being 'I may be having a rough time right now, but at least I'm not inside the head of returnal protagonist selene vassos'

[number-1-kuaidul-fanboy]

Punch Out Wii Boxers Ranked

Thought I’d give my opinion on this since I’ve already expressed biases towards/against certain characters. I will be including Donkey Kong and Doc Louis but not Little Mac (because he is the objective best). The list will go from 15: the worst, to 1: the best. Before I start, I’d like to say that all of these characters are good, well-crafted characters, it really just comes down to personal bias who you prefer. And with that, let’s get started:

15. King Hippo

King Hippo is barely a character. Everything he “says” (there are apparently translations) just boils down to being hungry and he has no personality outside of that. I don’t hate him, but I don’t really care about him. His fight is also pretty boring all things considered. The contender fight is pitifully easy once you know what you’re doing and his title defense fight can go on for a long time and get very monotonous. At least his music’s kinda cool.

14. Super Macho Man

As someone who lives in America, I hate Macho Man with a burning passion. It’s not because I’m ���patriotic,” it’s actually kind of the opposite. I’m not offended by his stereotype because it’s mean, I’m annoyed by his stereotype because it’s accurate. I deal with people like this on the daily: in the news. His catchphrases are obnoxious (except sometimes when they’re cut off. That’s kinda funny, admittedly) and he’s egotistical even compared to some of the others. He’s the type of person I actually want to punch in the face so I thank Punch Out for giving me that opportunity but I still hate the character. His match is fine. It’s a bit too easy in both contender and title defense compared to Soda and Bull but hey, at least they tried. His music’s alright.

13. Donkey Kong

Don’t get me wrong, I love Donkey Kong’s inclusion in this game. I think it’s amazing that Nintendo made a match for one of their most famous characters and the fight against him is very unique and challenging to win by KO. That being said, I never really played Donkey Kong so I don’t really have the connection to this character that others do. So yeah, great cameo, not one of my favourite fighters.

12. Bald Bull

Sorry, Bald Bull fans, but I’m not the biggest fan of this raging lunatic. In fact, he kinda creeps me out. People make jokes about Great Tiger being a furry (which he is), but Bald Bull straight up acts like a bull to the point of literally assaulting the poor referee. It’s kind of gross. To that same point, he is also completely shameless about his horrid anger issues which is personally not fun to watch. I get that he was driven mad by the paparazzi (or whatever that cutscene was trying to convey) but it’s still pretty over the top. I’m also not a big fan of his fights. It’s not too terribly difficult in contender mode (except the stupid bull charge) but it’s downright ridiculous in title defense. I firmly believe that his title defense match is the hardest in the entire game, yes even more difficult than TD Soda and TD Sandman. I cannot express with words how much I despise the star punch gimmick. Getting the star punches is frame perfect, making it feel like luck, and getting hit once makes you lose them all. And you need those stars to even knock him down. Seems a bit extreme for the middle fight in the world circuit, doesn’t it?! I was at this fight for hours and was over the moon when I finally managed to beat him. Also, his music kinda sucks. However, I put him over Macho Man because despite everything I just said, I don’t actually hate Bald Bull. I hate his fights but I don’t hate him personally like I do with obnoxious american.

11. Soda Popinski

Oh boy, Drunk Man. I don’t really see many reasons to like him but not any to hate him either, apart from his stupidly difficult fight, that is. I actually find it pretty easy in Contender. There’s a lot of strategies to knock him down really fast and his pattern is pretty basic. As for title defense, did they really need to make it that ridiculously hard? Yeah, there are tricks to make it easier and he has a set pattern but getting into the rhythm of that pattern is incredibly difficult and one slight mistake sets you back to two stun punches. It’s beyond frustrating. And yet the game deems him and Bald Bull to be easier than Macho Man. Why? As a character, Soda is just kinda there for me. It’s fun to make jokes about his steroid soda at least. Also, his music is for some reason one of my favourites tracks in the game. It’s just so epic.

10. Bear Hugger

Alright, now we’re onto the characters I actually like. Bear Hugger is a fun character. He’s one of the more exaggerated stereotypes though I can’t really say for sure whether this one is accurate or not but I’m guessing the maple syrup and hockey stuff at the very least is. I also love the squirrel. It’s implemented into the fight kind of oddly, but it makes his title defense fight pretty enjoyable. It’s a difficult fight but not one I’ve lost recently. The contender fight is fun too, it’s definitely one where I get to spam a ton of star punches. His music is good too. Not much to say on Bear Hugger, he’s fun but I like the other characters more.

9. Disco Kid

Kinda sad that the Wii version only introduced one new character to the roster but at least it was a fun character. Disco Kid’s matches are not a challenge. Contender mode, title defense, he’s one of the easiest fights in the game. He makes up for that by being incredibly over the top flamboyant and cocky, this time in a fun way. I like that he dances throughout his whole fight, I think it’s cool when every little aspect of someone’s match ties into who the character is. Disco Kid is a flamboyant dancer and that is perfectly shown through his mannerisms in the fights. I especially love how in Title Defense, he’s not really bitter or determined to beat Mac he’s just like, “Oh a dance club? This is cool, might as well work this stuff into my boxing routine.” It’s pretty excellent. I’m not a huge fan of disco, but his theme music is pretty good.

8. Aran Ryan

If there’s one thing I’ve seen since joining this site, it’s a lot of Aran Ryan. People on here really love this guy and even many of the YouTubers I’ve seen play this game say he is one of if not their favourite character in the game. Personally, I think he’s a little overrated. However, I do still like him and see why other people like him. He’s sort of a “love to hate” kind of character with him being a complete psycho that’s probably a sadist and a masochist considering how he seems to enjoy being punched and beating the hell out of everyone. It’s fun in a twisted way. His fights are also both pretty fun. Everyone really likes the cheating aspect and yeah, it’s pretty ridiculous that he can literally bring in a weapon and get away with it. However, it also makes his fight stand out from the others. He’s so horrible that he’s just fun to beat up. It’s also the only world circuit fight in title defense that I don’t hate with every fibre of my being. So yeah, fun character, with excellent music might I add.

7. Glass Joe

Here’s another favourite here on Tumblr. To be honest, the fact that people on here liked Aran Ryan didn’t surprise me at all. In fact, it seemed perfectly in character. However, it did surprise me to see how many people liked Glass Joe. I thought he was kind of underrated before but now I see that he’s getting the love he deserves. I love how even though Glass Joe is in every way a french stereotype, he also directly defies the stereotype of the french being quick to surrender. He lost one hundred times and still didn’t give up, becoming determined to defeat Little Mac after earning the headgear. It’s unironically really admirable. Glass Joe’s fights are never a challenge. Contender, title defense, champion’s mode, motion controls, he’s always kind of a joke. However, he is meant to be a tutorial fight for new players and this game gets much more challenging as it goes on, so it’s understandable. They did do a good job at making him more challenging in title defense, but it was still pretty easy at least in my opinion.

6. Von Kaiser

Von Kaiser’s a little underrated in this fandom. Maybe I’m speaking from bias, since I have so many headcanons about him but I really do think he’s a good character. He is just as much of a coward as Glass Joe and isn’t a much better fighter (his contender and title defense fights are both incredibly simple) yet Von Kaiser has a significantly better record than the rest of the minor circuit and even Bear Hugger, with 23 wins and 13 losses. He must’ve gotten those wins from somewhere and I doubt they were all from Glass Joe. That combined with the fact that Kaiser is the oldest boxer in the game (42) makes me think he was once a great boxer but has now passed his prime and refuses to give up, sort of like Glass Joe, but a little more tragic. Regardless, it’s fun to speculate. And I feel kinda bad for Von Kaiser, I mean the dude gets beat up by kids and basically goes mad after being beaten by a seventeen year old boxing newbie. Also, his music is pretty intense despite the fact that he’s treated like a joke by the game. Like Glass Joe, they did do a good job of making Kaiser more difficult in title defense by giving him a one hit KO and plenty of fake outs, though I don’t particularly struggle with either of those.

5. Sandman

Sandman is scary as hell. None of the other boxers really intimidate me, even the one with ridiculously difficult fights, but Sandman is a different story. Everyone else in the game has some kind of silly quirk even when they are serious but this guy is deadly serious about boxing. I mean, they introduce him by showing him beat the shit out of everyone you just faced before, some of which the player may have struggled with. It’s a great introduction for a final boss. His fight in contender is certainly the hardest in that mode and while I didn’t struggle with his title defense fight as much as TD Soda and TD Bull, it was still incredibly hard to beat. And unlike TD Soda and TD Bull, he actually has final boss vibes, so he does deserve his rank (unlike some other characters). Similar to Aran Ryan, his fight also requires the player to be more on offense, at least in my experience.

#4 Doc Louis

Doc Louis is severely underrated in this fandom and just in general. I love how encouraging he is to Little Mac even when he loses repeatedly, I love his silly tips that more often than not are cheesy dad jokes or puns. He’s just a good wholesome dad that loves his chocolate. I love him. Sadly, I have not played Doc Louis’s Punch Out so I don’t really have a perspective on how the fight is apart from videos online but it does look pretty fun, and it’s freaking Doc Louis. How can you not love him?

#3 Piston Hondo

This guy is also kind of underrated, maybe because he’s a bit vanilla? I don’t know, but apart from Sandman, he is undoubtedly the most serious about boxing. It’s actually a bit scary. I mean, this dude can catch a sword in his bare hands and outrun the bullet train, he could easily become champion after Little Mac retires. In fact, for me at least, his title defense fight is the most challenging fight in the major circuit for me. Yes, harder than Bear Hugger and Great Tiger. Those fake outs and speedy Hondo Rushes kept getting me. So yeah, very dedicated to boxing. He’s also just very respectable in general, keeping a calm demeanor throughout the fight and even bowing to show respect. He also doesn’t laugh at you when you get knocked down like literally everyone else does. (Apart from Don, but he still taunts you by asking if you want more.) Yeah, he gloats, but he’s a good sport. It’s nice to see someone who plays fair amongst a crowd of cheaters.

#2 Don Flamenco

Yet another character I’m surprised doesn’t get more attention in this fandom. I dunno, maybe my opinions are just weird. That being said, Don Flamenco was always going to be one of my favourites as he is the only foreign speaker in this entire game I can understand without subtitles. Though even if you don’t know spanish, Don’s character is still very clear and very amazing. Like, I’m sorry, but his contender intro is the best sequence in the entire game. You know immediately what he’s all about and it’s just so beautifully over the top to see this try hard dance his way into the ring with a rose. Actually, “beautifully over the top” is a great description for Don Flamenco in general. He hits every note of the “Spanish man” stereotype in the first few seconds you see him: being a bullfighter, getting all the girls, dancing the flamenco, and just being handsome in general. I don’t know if that last one is an actual stereotype but it’s undeniably true. And none of that is a bad thing. He is a positive figure, if a little cocky, and all of these things that the game could make fun of him for (the NES version certainly does), are actually shown in a positive light. I’m not too fond of bullfighting being shown in that light but it is very popular in Spain so… eh. Also, I do like that Don Flamenco fights like a bullfighter in the ring, baiting you into “charging” or attacking before countering. It’s a nice detail. However, it does make the fight a little too easy. In contender mode, even without doing the infinite, I barely have any trouble with him. He’s easy to get stars off of, his attacks are not that hard to dodge or counter, and if you do the infinite combo, you can destroy him in seconds. In title defense, he is more difficult for sure, but he’s the easiest fight title defense fight in the major circuit. That being said, holy cow is he amazing in title defense as well. He was already over the top in contender but in title defense, after one loss might I add, he acts like it’s the end of the world and becomes completely emo. This could’ve been completely obnoxious or stupid but in my opinion, it makes him very entertaining. He’s just so fun to watch in general, I love his epic music, and I love this angsty telenovela character. Amo al personaje Don Flamenco. El es tan entretenido y guapo. Necesita más amor. Because I mentioned that I know spanish earlier and the first first thing people always ask me is to speak some so there you go. Onto number one.

1. Great Tiger

If you’ve seen my other stuff here on Tumblr, you probably knew this was coming. My very first post on Tumblr, as well as the second, was about Great Tiger and I have tons of pictures of him in my likes. I guess I just have a thing for charming arrogant divas. Seriously, while he’s not as over the top as someone like Disco Kid or Don Flamenco, Great Tiger is a total diva and kind of a show off. He’s always using his clones to glorify himself or taunt you, which would normally be annoying but for some reason, it’s not in his case. And it’s not because I don’t know what he’s saying, the inflection in his voice makes it clear enough that he’s trash talking (and I’ve looked up translations). It’s because Great Tiger has a sort of cold determination, like he is ready to destroy you first, glorify himself after, probably the reason he doesn’t have a taunt, unlike nearly everyone else in the game. He is completely focused on the match and very cool-headed as well. He’s very respectable, even when he’s literally telling you to go drink your mother’s milk. On a side note, I looked up those translations as a kid and I still can’t get over the fact that that is something he actually says. Like, what on earth Nintendo? Still, it’s kinda funny to me. Anyways, I love Great Tiger’s fights. His contender form is fun and I love that intermission scene where he switches places with Doc, showing what a likeable douche he is but his title defense form is my favourite in the game. I really love the magical element, what can I say? The flashing jewel is like a game of Simon put to boxing, I love that he teleports all over the place, the Magic Rush is gorgeous bullshit, and the fight keeps me on my toes but not to the point of being impossibly hard. It’s also fun to experiment with certain elements of the fight, because it can be incredibly varied depending on what you do. just really fun. Whether I do the special knockout or play through the whole fight, I have a fun time fighting Great Tiger. It also helps that his music is spectacular, my favourite in the game. I dunno, those bongos just feel so good on the ears. Great Tiger is also just really interesting in general, and I feel like there’s a lot of unanswered questions about him. How does he have magic? (I know the NES version has an explanation for this but the Wii version does not and is substantially different.) What is the extent of his abilities? Is the jewel the source of his power? It seemed to be directly linked to his corporeal clones in title defense. Is he even of this world? I don’t know, but damn it’s fun to speculate on. I’d love a story just about his backstory, how he got his magic, how he became a boxer, I care about that stuff. So yeah, Great Tiger is the most interesting character in this game, and that’s why he’s my favourite. (I also low-key crush on him, but that’s subjective :)

Anyways, hope you enjoyed my list, it was kinda long, but I have a lot of opinions on this game and this is a good place to put it.

[captainchrisfics]

We Have Today

About: After he’s gunned down on a mission, a first-person pov narrator tries to take care of her super soldier boyfriend. Of course, being Captain America helps with the whole not dying thing, but Steve could never get away that easily without a good reprimanding. And I could never end a fic without a good kiss.

Word Count: 2,807

Requested By: Anonymous. Thanks for sending this my way! I had the absolute best time writing the dialogue in this one, it was a lot of fun writing my take on a trope I love too. I’m always accepting reqs if you have any more. Hope you enjoy!!

“I cannot believe you sometimes, Rogers,” I snapped at Steve, scoffing out of frustration. Exactly what I needed right now, while entirely exhausted from battling far more Hydra agents than we anticipated, was a boyfriend with bullet holes scattered throughout his bicep and shoulder. “Thinking your whole body can fit behind that dinner plate of a shield,” I continued to chastise him with a shake of my head as I tore at my suit, ripping some fabric to apply pressure with while we waited for our ride. 

We got what we came for. In fact, the tech was safely buried in the bag slung over my shoulder. The job was done. Almost. 

There was one rogue Hydra sniper left hidden away at the top of a tree. Steve spotted him first and responded so quickly, as if it were an instinctive reflex, that he barely considered what he was doing by jumping in front of the already-aimed gun. It’d been pointed at me. I returned fire successfully, but Steve was still hit. To say the least, today just wasn’t ours. 

He looked far less heroic laying on the forest floor in a crumpled heap of more red than usually accompanied his white and blue. Steve wheezed as he inhaled, though he seemed fine enough to give me one of those frustrating crooked grins as he said, “It’s never failed me before. I mean, look at me,” he tried to spread his arms so I could get a proper view, but all I saw was the way his face contorted with pain. “Pretty damn good for pushing a hundred.” He coughed before allowing his star-spangled piece of vibranium to clatter to the ground. 

“Dear, you look like Swiss cheese,” I countered sympathetically as I stuck a knife between his lips so Steve could bite down on something instead of busting my eardrums in 3... 2... 1...

I pulled the cloth taught around the worst of his wounds in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Steve’s screams still managed to be blood-curdling despite his grinding grip and, with as many horrors as we see in this line of work, I knew it wasn’t a sound my subconscious would allow me to forget any time soon. 

Steve’s rolled his eyes to the back of his head as hurt washed over him in waves, holding a hand to the bloody hole penetrating the left of his chest like a mirrored pledge of allegiance as he took deep breaths in and out. Prickly tears burned my eyes, but I did my best to fight them off. A torrential downpour wouldn’t help anyone right now. 

“C’mon doll, don’t be so harsh,” he paused to wince and for a split second and I allowed myself to feel the heartbreak of watching him in pain. “You’re still ripping your clothes off for me after all.” I chuckled some of the heaviness out of my chest to alleviate the oppressive weight in between my ribs. 

I didn’t have time for Steve’s jokes, though, I was too busy focusing on keeping him from running out of time, period. I tried to elevate the wounds in an attempt to keep his blood at the mercy of gravity so I hauled Steve up to a sitting position against a tree on the outskirts of the field our jet was set to land in. Now it was just a waiting game. 

I wasn’t sure if the super soldier serum made him at least a little impervious to wounds like this or if Steve was putting on a bit of a show to lessen my worry and even maybe boost his own spirits, but I had a bad feeling it was the latter. “You’re a lot of things,” I told him, hoping it would help to play along as I searched the compartments of his toolbelt for something useful until I found a spool of gauze. “Bulletproof apparently isn’t one of them.” 

Steve laughed from his belly at first, a welcome sound to my ears, until it turned into an affronted cacophony of grumbled curses and sullied coughs. I started wrapping up the rest of his injuries to the best of my ability, but I wasn’t a triage doctor, to say the least. On the bright side, however, I also heard the aircraft that descended before us, whipping about my hair so much I could barely see it until it slowed and Nick Fury stepped out.

I helped Steve stand, wrapping his arm that wasn’t littered with gunshot wounds over my shoulders for support as we walked to the ship. He hissed a breath through his teeth with each step, trying to breathe through the pain and chipping away at my resolve. 

Fury opened his arms to welcome us on board with a snarky quip on the tip of his tongue. Shooting him a look maybe more deadly than the weapon I brandished, I shoved the bag into his chest with enough spiteful vigor for him to know it wasn’t worth it. Nothing could be worth this.I left Steve to be treated by an actual medical professional (and by that I mean some Stark tech that still managed to amaze me) while I cleaned up myself and it seemed he’d be fine. 

I met Steve in the onboard bathroom an hour or so later. His major wounds were patched up, leaving me, a damp washcloth, and a mediocre first-aid kit given our circumstance to finish the job. Nevertheless, Steve still looked a hell of a lot worse than I did, having taken the brunt of every beating, jumping in front of the fist of every bad guy aimed at me so I walked away with little more than a scratch while he sat there looking like he’d been through the wringer.

Steve sat on the sink’s counter and slouched down as far as he could so we were almost eye-level. He’d taken off his suit for the procedure and kept it that way evidently, sitting before me in a red-splattered white tank top. I was patting at his bloody lip with an ice pack in the hopes to lessen the swelling as he said, “Don’t people bond through trauma?” Steve’s words were slurred, but I didn’t know if it was because of blood loss or some kind of treatment from the AI. “Good thing, huh, since the whole being from different centuries tends to complicate things.”

“Being a dumbass doesn’t help,” I chided, maybe applying a little bit too much pressure since I elicited a wince from him, though that could’ve just been from my harsh tone. The time for his wise-cracks was long gone. Sure, I could deal with it as a coping mechanism when we were both worried he was about to drop dead, but right now? When I was turning myself into a pretzel so I could properly clean all his cuts and ice all his bruises without so much as grazing the holes from bullets that went in one end of my boyfriend and out the other? Not the time to be talking about how we’d be better for him almost killing himself.

Steve’s eyebrows knitted together as he jutted out his puffy bottom lip. “What’s wrong wi-“ he started to ask, but the answer was already tumbling out of my mouth.

“It was stupidly impulsive of you to jump in front of me like that. To act so indestructible... it isn’t like you,” I lectured. “Correction, it actually totally is and it’s the most frustrating thing.” I pressed the ice pack to his mouth with maybe a little too much fevered force as I ranted, causing Steve to grunt out of discomfort or protest. I kept ranting anyway. 

“I hate when you do that, you know?” I dropped my hands to my sides, staring at Steve with wide eyes to convey how exactly tired of his shit I was. “When you try to save the day by putting yourself in danger. Giving me a heart attack. Acting all heroic.” I couldn’t stand looking at him anymore as his face shifted from concerned to smug with a supposed understanding so I reached for a q-tip dipped in rubbing alcohol and began scrubbing at the small open cute sprinkling his cheeks like freckles.

Steve winced at the disinfectant’s sting. Usually, he complained about my doting, claiming his enhanced healing would take care of it just fine, but I liked the tenderness of getting to clean him up too much to let him have his way. And, secretly, he did too. “It’s part of the job description, actually...” Steve said under his breath with downcast eyes. He swung his legs a little so his heels bounced off of the sink’s cabinets, acting every bit the chided kid he felt like. 

“And to treat me like some inexperienced lackey incapable of taking care of myself?” I jeered with a scrunched face. Steve had a bad habit of treating me like an endangered civilian on missions. Hell, even if I burn my hand on the stove, you’d think someone just told him World War III was knocking on our front door. 

Don’t get me wrong, Steve always had everyone’s backs. He would lay down on the wire for any one of the Avengers any day of the week, he never wanted to see anyone hurt either. In fact, it’s one of the things I loved most about him. However, there was a line thinner than that wire between keeping each other out of the line of fire and literally jumping in front of it. 

“It’s insulting, to treat me like I’m not half the soldier you are when I’m just as much a part of the team as everyone else. I had the shot until you jumped in front-“

“Well, dammit, so did he!” Steve snapped, slamming his hand against the countertop so hard I could almost swear I heard it crack under the pressure. “And you aren’t just everyone else on the team,” he said, quieter now. It was almost eerie after how loud he’d been only seconds before, going from strained veins in his neck to a soft, glassy look in his baby blues. Without him even saying it, I knew the difference. I love you, his eyes told me. I couldn’t stand to lose you.

“And you’re not some fucking self-sacrificial lamb,” I shot back with angry narrowed eyes. “You’re my whole world,” I insisted, shoving a pointed finger into Steve’s chest just over his heart. “You don’t get to just jump into unfriendly fire in front of me like that.” I could feel the tears I’d been pushing down this whole time rising with a new ferocity, like a current I’d been fighting to swim through for so long my body was about to give out. It became obvious I couldn’t take Steve on, too.

“You don’t get to decide that, love,” he said just above a whisper, though I could hear him clear as day given our proximity. He wrapped his fingers around mine jutting into his pec until I allowed him to hold my hand, probably against my better judgment. “You’re everything that makes mine go ‘round. It’d be over my dead body that I’d stand by and allow someone to hurt you,” Steve vowed with a profound seriousness I didn’t expect, striking me right in the heart so hard it felt like I could count the seconds between when it started to beat again.

“It almost was, Steve. You don’t know how it felt...” I spit out the words which tasted like vinegar, burning my throat like acid. I stopped prodding his scratched cheeks, dropping the q-tip along with my gaze. If I stared at his face, broken from the inside out, I was worried that current would turn into a tsunami. “My stomach dropped so fast it felt like it fell right out of me. How’d you feel if the roles were reversed and I was bleeding out at your feet, huh?” I squeezed his hand, reassuring myself that Steve was still here to hold onto. Thinking about how he almost wasn’t. We came close a lot, in our line of work, but it never got any less terrifying.

Steve let go of my hand to caress my cheek, rubbing his thumb under my eye. I hadn’t realized I was crying until he started wiping away my tears. “Doll, for a few split seconds, when I saw him about to pull the trigger with you in his crosshairs, they were.” He tucked his heel behind my leg and pressed against the back of my thigh, urging me to step closer to him so I did. “That feeling, that heart-wrenching desperation and brain-short circuiting,” he paused, taking a deep breath as he tucked his arms under mine, interlocking his fingers at the small of my back, “That’s why I did it. And I’m willing to bet my shield that if I was in his line of fire, you would’ve done the same.”

I wrapped my arms around Steve’s neck and leaned into him, far too tired of fighting and way too in love with him to stay upset with him when he was right. In a heartbeat, I would save him without even so much as a thought. I’m not a big enough hypocrite to hate Steve for doing the same.

I pressed my cheek to his chest, neither of us caring too much about how the wave of tears I couldn’t keep bottled up behind a dam any longer soaked through his shirt as they spilled out of me. “Still…” I exhaled, relishing in the sound of his beating heart. It was comforting, to have near-tangible proof that he wasn’t going anywhere any time soon. “I don’t know what I’d do if…” I failed to finish the sentence, overcome with emotion. I could barely stand to think it, let alone say it out loud.

“I know, love,” Steve paused to press a long kiss on top of my head. “I don’t either.” His hands moved in gentle circles at the base of my back, soothing me as I felt like every other bit of me rattled. He spoke with vulnerability only total honesty could offer. “We don’t have to worry about that now, though. We may not at all. We only ever know we have today and I’ll be damned if we don’t make the most of it. Or if you spend another second of it being mad at me,” he half-joked, causing his chest to rumble with a barely-bitter chuckle.

I pulled far enough away from his embrace to look at him, trying to engrave it on the inside of my brain. The tenderhearted look in his eye, the soft curve of his rosy lips as one side was tugged up a little more than the other, the concerned creases in his forehead, and the blush pink of his cheeks burning through his faintly developing bruises. I watched his eyes flicker from mine to my lips, his long lashes just barely brushing against the swollen apples of his cheeks. 

I leaned in to kiss him, closing the distance slowly until our chests pressed together with every breath before our lips met as if we were each other’s oxygen tanks, unable to survive without one another. Steve gathered my cheeks between his strong hands, fingers just barely grazing my hair. He tucked it behind my ears before tracing his fingers down the curve of my body, stopping once he reached my hips, where he rested. Exactly what we both needed. 

Mine stayed at the nape of his neck, pulling Steve closer to me as if he possibly could be. We parted to breathe, chests heaving unevenly. I pressed my forehead to his, brushing our noses together, as I whispered, “You smell like rubbing alcohol. It’s nauseating.” 

Steve’s chest vibrated with laughter as he rocked my lips again. He dropped his head to the crook of my neck as his chuckle died down. “Your attitude isn’t much better,” he said, looking at my with those baby blues and a spark that melted my heart on contact. “You should be nice to me. I almost died you know?” Steve’s familiar cocky smirk returned as his eyes drifted down again, watching as he tangled our fingers together and undid the knots. 

I rolled my eyes before stealing another quick kiss. As quick as it was, kissing Steve still felt like every bit the Fourth of July fireworks display it had the first time. He was a firecracker through and through, one that wasn’t near ready to fizzle out yet. “Please don’t remind me,” I sighed, taking his hands in mine and holding them tight, not quite ready to let him go anytime soon.

Tags: @patzammit​ , @thegetawaywriter​ , @coffeebooksandfandom​ , @captainsteveevans​ , @intrepidandabitcrazy​ , @super100012​ , @spilledinkindumpster​

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